Unusual residue left on case after tumbling

[condor bravo]

The photo, if it displays, shows from left an R-P .416 case with a residue coating after tumbling with lizard litter and nu-car auto polish. The coating is not a powder so will not simply wipe off with a rag, but is easily removed with steel wool. Case to the right has been polished with steel wool. Other cases are as they came from the tumbler. Cases are brass, not nickel. If this display works, I may have mastered posting a photo with this Samsung tablet gadget.

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Well, disregard, it didn't display and cannot get it to work with photobucket.
Post may be removed.

20160312_173725.jpg

 

[F. Guffey]

The coating is not a powder so will not simply wipe off with a rag, but is easily removed with steel wool.

I make spinners, when I want to show off I spin the case and clean with 3M green pads and finish with steel wool. The same methods works faster when loading short runs like 20 rounds. I can spin 20 cases in less time than it takes to tumble. Then there are those difficult cases to clean.

F. Guffey

 

[98 220 swift]

I have had this problem. It seems to happen when my media is getting too dirty. I buy new media and problems goes away.

 

[condor bravo]

Perhaps; my thought was using excessive auto polish causing dirt in the tumbler to adhere, kind of like you indicate. Strange it only happens with the .416 brass cases. The .458s don't come out nicely either but don't accumulate the residue. Yet all other cases are residue free and polish nicely. Recently I did leave the tumbler on overnight and the .458s came out like new but I don't like to tumble that long; other cases come out fine after two hours. No .416s were included with that batch and the residue doesn't accumulate with nickel cases.

 

[Snyper]

Toss in a few Kleenex or some pieces of paper towel and run it a while and they will collect a lot of the dirt from the media

 

[condor bravo]

Roger on the above; need to pick up the dirt and other debris.

 

[98 220 swift]

I have used dryer sheets thrown in the tumbler helps for the short term. When it happens to me it only does it to some of the brass and some of the calibers. Never could figure out why. Makes no sense.

 

[condor bravo]

Right, it is probably worth while not to throw those particular cases into the tumbler to begin with since they just have to be polished with steel wool when they come out of the tumbler.